Toxic: The addictive new crime thriller from the best selling author that will have you gripped in 2018. Jacqui Rose
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A noise.
Another.
And Bree let out a scream as she spun round. ‘Oh my god, you gave me a fright … Are you alright?’
There in the darkness was Ma. Her bulbous figure standing motionless. Her stare, narrow and cold.
‘I warned you, Bree. I told you what would happen. You should’ve listened. But little bitches like you never do.’
Slowly, Bree began to back away as the wind picked up, then she started to run, heading into the dark of the woods.
It felt to Bree she was going around in circles. All the trees looked alike and all the paths seemed to be the same. Suddenly her foot caught on an ivy root, sending her forward, plunging her head first into the wet moss and mud. With her hands stinging from trying to break her fall and the rough earth digging into her skin, Bree desperately tried to keep quiet as she crawled along on her hands and knees.
A branch snapped beneath her leg, the sound resonating through the woods, and within seconds Ma Dwyer reappeared, pushing her body forcefully through the dense scrub to get to Bree, her hand reaching and grappling in the dark.
Bree began to scramble up but the mud was too wet and she found herself slipping. She turned to see Ma closing in on her, a maniacal look on her face, eyes wild and frenzied.
She screamed as she felt Ma grab her hair before she was flung backwards and dragged through the bushes. Her head felt like it was on fire, then a crippling pain exploded. Unbearable. Ripping through Bree’s eye as a small branch caught and tore into her lid. She could taste the blood trickling down her cheek and into her mouth as Ma continued to drag her along.
Out from under the trees, the moon high in the night sky, Ma stared at Bree, a nasty smile on her face. Then Ma’s fist came smashing down as her heavy body straddled Bree, banging her head against the ground.
‘You leave my son alone! You ain’t taking him from me. He’s mine!’
Her mouth full of blood, Bree gave a breathless, staggered reply. ‘I love him though! I love him!’
Ma let out a piercing, deafening scream. ‘You can’t love him, he ain’t yours to love! So, you shut your dirty mouth, you just shut your dirty mouth!’
Pushing herself upright, Ma raised her foot, ready to bring it down on Bree’s mouth.
‘Stop, Ma! Don’t!’
Ma turned to look at Johnny. ‘I won’t let her, Johnny. I won’t let her take anyone away from me.’
Johnny walked up to Ma, he spoke gently. ‘Don’t do it, Ma. Don’t hurt her. Bree ain’t done nothin’. She ain’t going to take no one away, is she?’
Ma looked down at Bree who was curled up in a ball. ‘Ain’t she?’
‘No, she ain’t … because nobody ever leaves Ma.’
‘How the fuck can you lose a lorry full of horses? Who does that?’ Eddie Styler raged, filling Johnny’s overheated Range Rover with his seething, uncontrollable anger as they sat overlooking the deserted beach at Sandy Point, Holland Haven. He was visibly shaking and he hadn’t slept one wink because every time he’d tried to close his eyes, Jason Robinson’s face flashed through his mind, though it certainly hadn’t helped that Sandra had insisted on grilling him like she was part of the secret police.
He hadn’t eaten either, partly due to the pain in his mouth which he’d sustained from the beating, but mainly because he felt sick. Sick at the idea that if he didn’t find the money to pay off the people he owed, he was a walking dead man. And not for the first time, he cursed the memory of Reginald Reynolds for leaving him with nothing after all his loyalty.
Ma sat at the back, her voice cold, a hint of amusement in it. ‘Eddie, you look terrible mate, are you sure you’re okay? You look like you need to see a quack.’
Hysteria coursed through Eddie. He screamed out his words as he bashed his fist on the dash over and over, in time with his words.
‘And … Why … Am … I … Not … Okay … Cos … Of … You … Two … Fucks.’
Ma Dwyer leant forward from the back, putting her hand on Eddie’s shoulder. ‘You better calm down before you do yourself a mischief. Not only that, but you better be careful how you talk to us.’
Scrambling in his pocket, Eddie pulled out a small gun, his hand trembling as he attempted to point it at Johnny and Ma. His face going purple with fury. ‘Have you forgotten who I am? Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?’
Ma looked at him evenly, a small smile pulling at her lips. ‘Oh no, Eddie, I know exactly who I’m talking to, but right now I just don’t care.’
The gun shook in his hand as he spoke. ‘You think this is a joke? Do you realise what you’ve done to me? Do you know what I had riding on this? You need to find my fucking lorry, cos when they come looking for me, I’ll be sending them right to your door, Ma.’
‘You ain’t doing yourself any favours, so just put the gun down, Eddie.’
‘And why should I do that? You turned me right over. Tell me Ma, were you in on it?’
She laughed nastily. ‘In on what?’
Exploding again and slurring his words from the copious amounts of whiskey he’d consumed, Eddie looked on the verge of tears. ‘On taking everything I had left in the world!’
With ease, Ma flicked the gun out of Eddie’s hand. ‘And that’s the big problem, ain’t it Eddie? You see I’ve been speaking to a couple of Reginald Reynolds’ men, and they told me none of them are working for you anymore. Not only that, but they told me how much you liked to run up debts in Reggie’s name. But now the fella’s brown bread, you are out on your own and people want their money, and you ain’t got it, have you? Which means you ain’t got our money either. We want our money, Eddie.’
Eddie went into his pocket, pulling out a flick knife. ‘What? Are you trying to mug me off? Your men lost me fucking lorry, so I ain’t paying you nothing.’
Johnny sneered at him. ‘That’s not how it works, and you know it. We still did the job. My men still brought the lorry across the Channel. There were still risks for us. We never did anything wrong on our end, and even before this happened, you were never straight with us.’
‘What am I, a fucking spirit level? I told you what you needed to know.’
Ma leant over the car seat again to squeeze Eddie’s shoulder, slightly too hard for his liking. ‘No, Eddie, you didn’t. You never told СКАЧАТЬ